Chili Herb Sauce

A hot and salty sauce and condiment for the true fans of the world cuisine. Though its taste is not for the weak hearted, Chili Herb Sauce rewards the curious gourmet with exceptional results. Chili Herb Sauce is based on a staple of the Caucasian cuisine – the ajika, that has centuries-old traditions and is immensely popular in Caucasus and Eastern Europe.

Ajika means ‘salt’ in the Abkhaz language. In the ancient Caucasus shepherds were given salt to feed it to the sheep which made them thirsty and forced to eat more grass. The shepherds would sometimes steal the salt – to prevent theft, the owners started to mix the salt with dried hot pepper. However, this did not stop the shepherds – they added various herbs (dill, parsley, coriander, garlic, etc.) and water to the mix and thus ajika was created. In time the mix became an inseparable part of Caucasian cuisine.

There is no single original recipe of ajika and there cannot be one as every village makes it in their own unique way. Traditionally, dried hot pepper was used to make ajika. However, ajika made with freshly ground pepper was considered to be of much higher quality. This is exactly what we offer – our product is made using fresh ground hot pepper.